Cute characters from the guru of superflat (extract)

Kawaï, Coloriage

Work by Takashi Murakami and others: Cartier Foundation, Paris 27 June – 27 October 2002

Over the past ten years Murakami has emerged, along with Mariko Mori, as the leading light in a new generation of Japanese artists – a generation which sees itself as the inheritor of both traditional Japanese art as well as more recent popular art. These exhibitions are an offshoot of ‘Superflat’, another joint show organised by Murakami in 2001 for LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which set out to explore the identity of contemporary Japanese art while defending the equal status of the author in fine and applied art . . .

Another Murakami exhibition, ‘Kaikai Kiki’, runs at the Serpentine Gallery, London, until 12 January 2003.